Intonation

Intonation, in phonetics, the melodic pattern of an utterance. Intonation is primarily a matter of variation in the pitch level of the voice (see alsotone), but in such languages as English, stress and rhythm are also involved. Intonation conveys differences of expressive meaning (e.g., surprise, anger, wariness).

In many languages, including English, intonation serves a grammatical function, distinguishing one type of phrase or sentence from another. Thus, “Your name is John,” beginning with a medium pitch and ending with a lower one (falling intonation), is a simple assertion; “Your name is John?”, with a rising intonation (high final pitch), indicates a question.

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in phonetics, intensity given to a syllable of speech by special effort in utterance, resulting in relative loudness. This emphasis in pronunciation may be merely phonetic (i.e., noticeable to the listener, but not meaningful), as it is in French, where it occurs regularly at the end of a word or...

The chanting of the Rigveda and Yajurveda shows, with some exceptions, a direct correlation with the grammar of the Vedic language. As in ancient Greek, the original Vedic language was accented, with the location of the accent often having a bearing on the meaning of the word. In the development of the Vedic language to Classical Sanskrit, the original accent was replaced by an automatic stress...